Releasing Linda
by Brienna25
Summary: Linda comes to America to study for a year. She meets the Benedict family and finds out things about herself she doesn't want to know. *** Will's Soulfinder Story.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note. **  
**I became obsessed with the Finding Sky series and I wanted to live in this world a bit longer, so I decided to write Will's Soulfinder Story.**  
**All credits to Joss Stirling for this wonderful world and the amazing characters!**

**Chapter 1.**

I rummaged through my handbag. Where was it? This was really just like me, to lose it before I can even use it. They wouldn't know who I am. Ah! There it was! I took out the badge and put it on my jacket. With a sense of relief I got out of the plane. It was a long trip, but at least I could sleep through most of it. I felt strangely tired, which I shouldn't be, since I slept, but normally I would be in bed now. I hoped I get adjusted to the time-zone change fast enough without really experiencing a jet lag.

After I got my bags I went to the main hall. Wow, there were really a lot of people there. At the information desk I saw a woman with a sign. I could see it's from my exchange program, so I walked over to her.

"You are Linda," she nodded at my badge and held out her hand. "Linda from Holland, I'm Jessa and I will be getting you to the university."  
I shook her hand and gave her a smile.  
"Nice to meet you, Jessa."  
"You're not the last to arrive, I'm afraid we'll have to wait for two more planes. You can wait in the bus if you want to get some sleep or you can wait in the resting area. Please, just don't wander away from me, or I will have to go and find you."  
"I won't, I just need to use the restroom first and then I'll get to the resting area."  
She smiled again.  
"Great! See you in an hour or so then!"  
I followed the signs to the bathroom and cleaned myself up a bit. The cold water felt good to my face and I felt freshened up.

After the other students arrived, Jessa got us all to the bus. I sat down to a girl with red hair, she's wearing glasses and she looked really tired. I supposed I looked a bit like that now. She smiled at me and started to say something, but then Jessa began talking through the microfone.  
"Welcome to America! Now that we're all here, I can do a bit explaining. We're heading of to the university now. It will be a 3 hour drive, so for those of you experiencing jet lag, get some sleep while you still can. When we get to the university, Mark will be there, he will take the boys to their rooms. The girls will follow me. We made sure everyone shares a room with someone who will take the same classes as you, so they can show you around. If you have any questions, you can always ask them, or come find Mark or me. I hope you have a wonderful time here, we are definitely excited to have you here!"  
She put down the microfone and sat down. People began to start talking and the girl next to me tried again.  
"Hi, I'm Loretta, from Spain, everyone just calls me Lola though. Nice to meet you."  
I shook her hand.  
"I'm Linda, from The Netherlands. It's nice to meet you as well."  
We talked a bit about the places we are from, but even though we are from the same time zone, I could tell Lola was way more tired than I was. She excused herself but I waved it off and told her to get some rest while she can.

I woke up to Jessa talking.  
"We're here! Please all get your bags and follow me girls. Boys, Mark is out there. Let's go!"  
Ugh. She sounds way too cheerful to someone just waking up. Lola gave me a look which told me she agrees.  
We got out of the bus and followed Jessa with our bags.  
"When I call your name, come get your papers and key from me and go find your room. They're numbered, so it won't be hard to find them."

She started calling of names and handing out keys. When she called mine, I walked over to her and looked at my information sheet. Room 62. I opened the door and walked in to see a girl sitting at the desk. She was sitting with a laptop, but turned around at the sound of the door.  
"You must me by room mate for this year! Hello, I'm Phoenix."  
She got up from her chair.  
"Here, let me help you with that."  
She took one of my bags and placed it next to the empty bed, then turned around to look at me.  
Oh, I was supposed to say something, I was just standing there looking at her.  
"I'm sorry," I held out my hand "I'm Linda, nice to meet you."  
She smiled at me.  
"Jet-lag? I had when I first came here from England."  
This news confused me a bit.  
"I thought I was going to be paired up with someone from here?"  
"Oh, you are! I live here now. I decided to come to America, I've been living here for two years now."  
"Oh, sorry. Again."  
I can not believe I was that rude.  
"That's okay. I know I felt a bit overwhelmed coming to America. I'm sure you must have jet lag and would like to rest up some more."  
"I slept in the plane and I slept in the bus. I should be fine."  
"It is best to just go right through it. I'll just leave you alone for an hour or so to get settled in. And then I'll come and pick you up for lunch?"  
"That sounds really great, thank you."  
Phoenix walked to the door and turned around before leaving.  
"I think we're going to have a lot of fun!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

After I unpacked my stuff and Phoenix got back she took me down to the lunchroom.  
"We usually have lunch here, but if you're in between classes, you can also just grab something from the cafeteria in the main building."  
We walked over to the buffet and both got trays. She continued talking.  
"We have warm meals in the evening, but usually there's soup at lunch time."  
She stopped to look at me. "What would you like?"  
I looked at all the food.  
"Where I'm from, you bring your lunch, usually bread, with you to school, I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of this. I think I'll just have bread and some soup."  
She laughed.  
"That's a good choice."  
We both filled our trays and I looked around for a table. Phoenix went straight for an empty table so I just followed her. I wondered if she didn't have friends where she would normally sit with, but as we went towards the table, she waved to other people and exchanged a few comments with some of them.  
"I thought you might like to eat in some sort of privacy instead of meeting everyone right away. People will be flocking either way though."  
"Well, that's what you get when you decide to come to a foreign country for a year." I tried to joke. But she was right, I did feel uncomfortable. I really wanted to come to America, but it was kind of intimidating, all these people. This university is way much bigger than the one where I went to in The Netherlands. Phoenix looked at me as if she knew and I thought about how she had told that she also came from another country.  
When we both finished eating, Phoenix got up.  
"Well, you have the day off today, but I still need to attend my classes. Are you okay here?"  
I didn't know. But I would have to be. I couldn't just stick to her all the time, so I tried to smile with confidence.  
"Of course."  
"Then I will see you after classes."

She left, taking both of our trays with her. I watched her put them on the counter and leave out the door. Then I looked around the almost empty room, spotting Lola waving at me. She was sitting at a table with some other peope I recognized from the bus. I walked over to them.  
"Hey, Linda, I wondered where you went, we all had lunch together." Lola said.  
"My room mate asked me to have lunch with her, so..." I started, but one of the guys interrupted me. He leaned over the table to take my hand.  
"Well, hello, lovely lady, I'm Rico, from Italia, where are you from?"  
He had a very thick accent which made me smile. I tried to pull my hand away as I introduced myself.  
"I'm Linda, from The Netherlands."  
He didn't let go of my hand, but lifted it up and kissed my palm while he kept his eyes on mine.  
"How lovely to meet you."  
I felt my cheeks burning red and heard Lola and some others laugh.  
"She isn't used to that kind of thing." Lola said.  
"We'll just have to give her some time to loosen up then." One of the other boys said.  
I wanted to keep my head down in embarrassment but instead decided to look around the table. I didn't want to become the permanent object of laughter. All of these people came from the bus and I recognized most of them by face, even though I was only properly introduced to Rico and Lola. It wasn't a big group, the total of us foreigners just being ten people. I shook hands and was introduced to all of them, but I didn't remember all of the names. Two were sisters from France, the only two coming from the same country. One boy came from Greece. I'd get to know all of them in time, I guessed.

I was surprised at how easy it was to adjust to the American university life. Phoenix introduced me to some friends of her and I quickly became friends with the other international students. Classes could be hard sometimes, because of the language difference, but Phoenix was really nice and tried to help me understand everything.  
During the week I would follow classes. In the weekends Phoenix would go home and I had the room to myself. Most students went home, but of course the international students stuck around as well, so I had people to talk to. And I enjoyed taking long walks by myself as well.  
The group of international students still liked to make fun of me because I wasn't hot-tempered or particularly passionate about things, I was just this down-to-earth Dutch girl. Apparently, so I was told by Lola and the French Louisa and Marcella, I didn't even respond to guys trying to flirt with me. I couldn't even believe guys would flirt with me at all, but they said I was just oblivious to it. When I asked her about it, Phoenix full heartedly agreed with the girls. That was fine, I didn't care about boys anyway. Definitely not since I would be going back to The Netherlands. And I was just not the type of girl to get into something you knew couldn't last.

After a few weeks, Phoenix asked me if I would like to come with her for the weekend. We were sitting in our room when she asked.  
"It will be fun, it's just a one hour drive. Yves will come pick us up."  
I hadn't met her boyfriend yet, just seen him from a distance.  
"Come on, Linda, you can stay at our place, you'll get your own room. My family would really like to meet you. Karla has been telling me to bring you over since you got here."  
I couldn't really understand that. Yes, I'm Dutch, but that doesn't make me really special, just Dutch.  
"Who is Karla?"  
"My mother-in-law."  
"Your boyfriends mother."  
Phoenix looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Well, really, my mother-in-law. We are married."  
"What?"  
"I know, I know," she held up both hands. "We are young, but I'm from England and it gave me the visa needed to stay here. We generally don't tell people."  
I didn't think they were too young at all. Friends around me had married at a young age, I was used to it.  
"Anyway," she said "Karla has been asking me to bring you, she would really like to meet someone from The Netherlands. And, she's been worrying that you will feel alone around the holidays, so she asked me to bring you for Thanksgiving. And if you're going to do Thanksgiving, with the entire family, then it's better you come for a weekend or two first, so you don't meet them all at once."  
"Them _all?_" I asked her.  
"Well, yes, Yves has 6 brothers."  
"6!" It was all I could manage. Well, I've met big families before, but in a whole other country, another culture, it didn't seem like something I would want to do.  
"Oh, don't worry. Only Zed and Uriel will be home this weekend. Like I said, you won't be meeting all of them at once. You will stay at my house, not with them. And besides, you're in America, another country! You should go and see more than just the university grounds."  
Now that was the argument that really pulled me in.  
"Okay, Phee, I'll come."  
"Great!" She jumped up from her bed and started packing for me. Her enthusiasm was catching on to me now that I decided to come.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

"Nice to meet you, I'm Yves."  
He held out his hand to me with a smile. Wow, he was cute. I could definitely see why Phoenix would've fallen for him. I shook his hand.  
"I'm Linda, thanks for having me this weekend."  
"I'm glad you're willing to come along, Phee has been talking a lot about you and my mom kept telling her to bring you," he laughed. "It's like you're doing us a favor."  
Still, I could understand if he would not like me to tag along. He didn't see his girlfriend – wife – all week, so I figured private time would be nice. I got in the car and Yves took off.

"We've got an hour drive, so we'll explain you some stuff about our family." Yves said, while he looked at me in the rearview mirror.  
"You know I have 6 brothers, I don't have any sisters. Trace is the oldest, he's married to Diamond and lives in Denver. Uriel, Victor and Will all live there as well, the three of them have an appartment together. Xavier is married to Crystal, Diamond's sister, and they live in New York, where Xav is in med school. I'm the next in line and then we have Zed, the youngest, he still lives with my parents. His girlfriend is Sky, she lives with her parents as well. She's usually at my parents' house in the weekends, with Zed. If they aren't there, they come over to our place."  
"I don't think I can remember all of that right away."  
"That's alright," Phee replied cheerfully, "You'll get to know them. After all, you're gonna be in America for a full year and only two months have passed."  
I could tell she genuinly hoped I would become good friends with her and her family.

Before the car stopped, the door of the house already went open.  
"Hey!"  
A man came running out and openend the door on Phee's side. He pulled her out of the car and into a hug.  
"Little Phee, I've missed you!"  
Phee let out a small yelp of excitement when her feet went into the air.  
"Put me down, Uri, now!"  
"Uri, we have a guest, behave!" A small woman with long dark hair came outside. She turned around to me and gave me a hug. "So nice to meet you, Linda, I'm Karla."  
A bit startled because of the hug I replied: "Nice to meet you to, Mrs. Benedict."  
"Oh, don't call me that dear, just say Karla. All the girls do. Come inside, all of you."  
She rushed us inside, saying that dinner was almost ready. She complained about Yves not eating enough and told Phoenix how good she looked. I watched them and saw that they are close. You could see that this family loves each other. There's complaining and banter, but all in good fun.

"Let me introduce myself, I'm Uriel."  
The long man looked at me and I took his hand. His eyes seemed to narrow a bit, but it happened so fast that I thought I'd imagined it. Uriel was also very good looking. Looking around I saw the youngest brother as well, Zed. Just as handsome, but very tall and intimidating. But that washed away everytime he looked at Sky. Uriel introduced me to the rest of the family and we sat down for dinner. Saul asked me about my family in Holland.  
"Well, actually, it's The Netherlands." Everyone but Phee and Yves looked a bit surprised at that comment. I regretted having said it, I didn't want to be rude, I wanted to apologize, but Yves was first.  
"Holland is a part of the country, dad, the whole of it is called The Netherlands. It's divided into different areas."  
"Of course you would know that." Uriel muttered and everyone laughed. Phee looked at me encouragingly.  
"I live with my parents in Groningen, I have a little brother and I'm part of a twin."  
"So there's another beautiful one of you walking around?" Uriel said. I laughed.  
"No, I have a twin brother."  
"Oh, that's horrible, those tend to be protective of their sisters even more than just big brothers." Yves shot him a warning look, but the rest of the people at the table just laughed.

After dinner Yves drove us to their house. Phee showed me my room and told me that if I needed anything, I should just ask for it.  
On Saturday, Phee showed me around town and we went shopping for a bit. And on Sunday we went back to Benedicts house again for brunch. Phee said it was something they did every Sunday.  
"Linda, is there anything you'd like to do today?" Karla asked me.  
"I was thinking of walking into the mountains." Phee made a face, showing that she wasn't much of a walker. "I can go alone, you don't have to come with me, Phee. I don't mind walking by myself."  
Uriel peeked around the door, his hair was wet and he was only wearing a pair of jeans.  
"I'll walk with you Linda."  
I wanted to protest that he really didn't have to do that, but he was already gone.  
"Well, it's best anyway, to have a guide." Karla said, "It's not hard to get lost in those mountains." Saul nodded and Phee seemed relieved. With all of them agreeing on it, I got the sense protesting wouldn't make any difference. But when Uriel and I left the house, I still tried.  
"Really, I can just go by myself."  
"It's no problem, I like walking." He sounded so firm that I didn't answer. And we walked in silence. When we got to the trail I saw it was gonna be a climb. I was out of breath in no time, so Uriel slowed down a bit, so I could catch my breath again. When we got to the top I turned around to look at the view. It felt good standing here, my feet warm from the walking, a little out of breath still. It felt like a reward seeing such a beautiful view.

"So, tell me, what are your hobbies?"  
I had almost forgotten Uriel was standing there and by the smile on his face I could tell he had noticed that.  
"Uhm. I like to walk. Obviously."  
He nodded, looking expectantly, waiting for me to continue.  
"I read a lot and I like to sing."  
"Really?" His eyes lit up. "Sing something for me."  
"Oh, no! I don't sing for people, I just sing for myself."  
"Why? What's the fun in it if you can't show it off?"

"I like to sing for myself, I don't know if other people will like hearing it." I admitted. Before he could say anything, which I could tell he wanted to, I continued: "I like music. I like singing. A song can tell a story. Music can get through to the soul. I just love the way singing makes me feel. I don't know if I even _want_ to share that. Or if I could, for that matter."  
Uriel looked at me but didn't reply, I guessed he was thinking it through. After a while he did say something.  
"I get what you mean, I think." He looks at me and smiles. "Let's head back down."


	4. Chapter 4

** Chapter 4.**

When we went back to the university that afternoon, Karla told me that I was welcome to come by anytime. Phoenix insisted that I'd treat the room at her house as my own and after a few weeks I started leaving some clothes and other stuff over there. During the week I went to my classes and had fun with the other students. In the weekends I would come with Phee and Yves to their house, with brunch at the Benedicts house every Sunday.

Before I knew it, the week of Thanksgiving was there. It was a full week without classes and Phee decided I would spend the entire week at their house.  
I was feeling a bit nervous about meeting the entire family. I saw Zed and Sky regularly, but out of the rest of them, I had only met Uriel.  
Karla had told me not to worry about it, the boys wouldn't be arriving all at once. They would be dropping in during the week. When we got there on Friday, Uriel was already there. It was nice to at least see a familiar face at first. We had been mailing each other a lot and I had become friends with him, we found out we had a lot in common.  
"Xav and Crystal will be here Thursday, Xav could only get two days off from the hospital, so they will only be here for Thanksgiving Day, but the rest will be here on Tuesday." Karla told us at dinner.

The next morning Yves and I were sitting at the kitchen table. It had become our Saturday morning routine, both of us working on our laptops during breakfast. Phee was usually somewhere around the house.  
When the door opened, Yves and I both looked up to see Uriel walking in. I assumed he was here for Yves so I turned my attention to the screen again. But then my laptop was closed.  
"Hey, I'm working on that!" I looked up at Uriel, who was grinning at me.

"Yes, you were. And now you're not, you're coming with me."  
"Do you think that's a good idea Uriel?" Yves also closed his laptop and walked over to my side of the table. Uriel didn't say anything but looked at Yves and raised his eyebrow. Phoenix came walking in.  
"Hey Uri, what are you doing here?" Yves turned to Phoenix, but Uriel looked at me.  
"You can't go dressed like that, you need something that's loose and easy to move around in."  
"Well, I didn't bring any sportswear, do you know how much the luggage cost me?"  
Uriel laughed. "Phee, can you borrow her some?"  
"Sure, come on."  
Phoenix took me up to her room.  
"Is there something going on between you and Uri?"  
"What? Oh, no, we're definitely just friends."  
"Yves didn't seem to think so." she stated.  
"Well, there's nothing going on."  
I changed into Phee's clothes and got in the car with Uriel.

"Where are you taking me?"  
"I'm not telling you."  
"You know I don't like surprises."  
"Sure you do, every girl likes surprises."  
"I don't, Uri."  
"Sky told me you've taken up singing."  
I sighed. "Where are you taking me?"  
"I'm not telling you." he sang.  
"Fine." I turned to look out the window.  
"Tell me about your singing, Sky told me you sing with her?"  
Back at the university I had told Phoenix about my talk with him and she had insisted that I'd try singing anyway. First just with her alone, in our room at the university. But she'd said she liked my voice so much that I just had to sing with Sky. So she got Sky to play the piano and sing with me, I usually sang with her on Sunday afternoon's now.  
Ignoring him wouldn't make him tell me where we were going. "Yeah, Phee made me."

After only half an hour of driving, Uriel stopped the car.  
"We're here."  
I looked up at a grey building. It wasn't big and I didn't get what it was. Uriel opened my door.  
"Come on, adventure awaits."  
"It's in this building?"  
"Nope, we're just passing through here."  
We walked in and I saw a lot of climbing equipment.  
"You're taking me climbing?" I asked Uriel.  
"Yep, thought you'd like to climb some real mountains."  
I already loved it. I had written in my mails that I loved to go wall-climbing.  
The man behind the counter came our way. He got us our climbing gear and came outside with us. Uriel knew him and I guessed the man didn't think explaining to Uriel was necessary any more. Instead he explained everything to me. I listened intently, but it turned out I didn't need instructions either, it was the same equipment I used at my climbing gym. The man went back inside and Uriel pointed out the route.  
"The first part is easy, we climb that wall to get up to the platform. There's a harder part up there, which we'll take then. Once we get to the top of that, we'll have lunch," he turned around, showing the bag on his shoulders, "and we'll walk the trail down to the first platform again. Last, we will descend down the first part again."

We both put on our helmets. Uriel was right, the first part was easy. The second part was a bit more difficult. We didn't talk, I needed all of my concentration to find my grip to the way up. Uriel started pointing out where to reach on to.  
I was just looking for a ledge for my hand, when I felt my foot slip. My hands didn't have enough grip to hold my weight. Before I even made a sound, Uriel had grabbed my wrist.  
"I'm secure, you can let go." I assured him.  
He grinned. "Not gonna do that. You fall, I catch. Place your foot to your right, a little bit further."  
I found the ledge and supported my own weight again.  
"Thanks." I breathed. I had fallen many times on a climb, and I knew I was secure, so not really in danger, but you always get a rush of adrenaline when you fall.

We finished the route and Uriel gave me the water bottle.  
"You did even better than I expected you to," he said, "We finished the entire route in less than two hours."  
"I told you I can climb."  
"You can," he agreed, "but you did scare me there though, you could've gotten hurt."  
"I was secure, I've lost grip many times, nothing would've happened."

"Yeah, well, you are used to a climbing wall, that's something different than slamming into a rock wall."  
I shrugged it off. I didn't only climb at home, but a lot of other physical activities as well. I was used to getting minor injuries. We finished our lunch and packed up again. The walk back down took more time than the climb up, we had to follow a longer path. But I didn't mind, I liked being out in nature, no walk was ever too long for me. When we got to the abseiling I was already feeling tired. I was used to long walks and spending the entire day outside with physical activities, but just a few months without my normal exercise routines had made my physical fitness less than it was. Starting next week, I decided, I would go and do morning runs at the university. Even though I was feeling a bit drained, the abseiling felt great as usual, it felt freeing to just slide down. We got in the car and Uriel drove us home. I didn't think I was that tired, but I soon fell asleep in the car.


	5. Chapter 5

**Ready to meet Will? ;-)**

**Chapter 5.**

The next few days I spent most of my time with Uriel or alone. I wanted to give Phoenix and Yves some time for themselves and I knew Phee appreciated that.  
On Tuesday morning during breakfast Yves told me they were going to go to the Benedicts' house to wait for the rest of the family to arrive. As soon as we walked into the kitchen, Uriel leaped up.  
"Come on, let's walk."  
He turned me around and led me to the door. I saw Karla smiling, but Saul looked at Uriel with a worried expression. Uriel started talking and I forgot about Saul. We took a route I hadn't walked before and I was again amazed by how beautiful everything was. The walk took about an hour and when we got back to the house, there was another car parked. Uriel smiled.  
"They're here! Let's have some fun!"  
He grinned at me, picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, making me gasp for air.  
"Uri, put me down!"  
He walked inside. "Yeah, in a minute."  
"No, put me down now!" I began batting his back, but all I got was a pat on my behind in return.  
I was still telling him to put me down when we got in the kitchen.  
"Alright, alright."

He put me on the kitchen counter and we both laughed. He didn't let go of my hand and looked to the other end of the room. I realized the kitchen was filled with his family. I didn't hear any voices so I had assumed they were in another room. They had fallen silent because of the way we entered the room and I guessed Uriel was out for this kind of reaction. Uriel grinned, confirming my suspicion.  
"Hey guys, meet my girl, Linda."  
I turned to look at him. His girl? Now I understood what he meant when he said for us to have some fun before going inside. A man and woman holding hands came walking up to me. He held out his hand to me.  
"Hi, I'm Trace, this is my wife Diamond." I shook both of their hands, mumbling something about how nice it was to meet them and they walked back to the table. People were starting to talk again and Uriel had left my side to sit at the table as well. I jumped from the counter and looked the other man in the eye.

"Hi, I'm Will."  
The Benedict brother's were goodlooking, but he made my breath catch in my throat. I had to cough before I could talk.  
"Linda." I coughed again. "And not Uriels girlfriend."  
He laughed loudly, making some heads at the table turn. Why did I say that? I just felt the urge to tell him, even though I had no doubt he knew Uriel had made a joke. He agreed with my thoughts.  
"Yes, I know."  
As he shook my hand I felt a shock going through my body. He looked a bit surprised himself, but seemed to shake it off. As I just stood there, looking at him, I was trying to come up with something to say.  
"Want some coffee, Linda?"  
I almost jumped, I had not noticed Uriel walking back to us. I breathed in and turned away from Will, who also was still looking at me.  
"You know better," I tried to joke, "tea for me, please."  
Will motioned for me to walk to the table before him so I went and sat down next to Sky, who immediately turned to me, asking me to sing later. I started to say no but Diamond leaned over to look at us.  
"I would like to hear you sing."  
She said it with such genuine interest that I couldn't refuse her. So after I finished my tea Sky and I went to the living room where she got behind the piano. Diamond, Phoenix and Karla came in to listen. Diamond didn't make me feel uncomfortable at all, I felt at ease singing in front of her. Sky and I first sang a few songs together and then Sky started talking about some changes and different things she wanted to try with one of the songs. As she and I talked about it, the three other women sat down in a corner of the room, chatting and catching up on things.  
When Sky and I had finished up a song I looked at the door and saw Will standing there. He smiled at me and walked out again.

"Will and Uriel are coming over to our house for the next few nights," Phoenix told me before dinner. "We've got spare rooms and it'll get crowded in here with the entire family present. They are used to that of course, but since there is an extra house with extra rooms, we felt it was best to give all the couples a room alone."  
So after dinner, Will and Uriel got in the car with us. Phee and Yves took the two front seats and since it was just a short ride, the boys both got in the back with me. I felt strangely uncomfortable and yet really comfortable at the same time. After all the time I had spent with Uriel and all the things we knew about each other, I didn't mind being this close to him at all. But after meeting him for the first time in the kitchen, I hadn't talked to Will at all. I felt a strange energy, a tingling feeling from his physical being next to me. And it seemed like Will was feeling something as well, he wasn't talking much. Uriel tried to keep the conversation going, but it wasn't as light-hearted as I usually spoke with him.

When we got home Yves asked if we wanted something to drink. I said no, excused myself and went to my room. Uriel looked after me when I walked out of the room. I changed into my pyjama and sat on my bed. I took out a book but couldn't concentrate on it. I started up my laptop to write some on my school-work, but I couldn't concentrate on that either. Frustrated, I put my laptop away and lay down on the bed, trying to relax.  
After a while I heard the rest coming up the stairs and saying good night to each other. I tried to fall asleep, but I felt I had to much energy in my body, even though it was late.  
What _was_ it about Will? It wasn't like I instantly fell in love, although there was an instant jump of my heart when I saw him. It just felt like a connection, something that was there before I met him but like I only recognized it when I did meet him.  
Knowing I wouldn't be able to fall asleep right now, I decided to go out for a run. Yes, it was late, but I was used to running in the dark, I wasn't afraid. And I would only go a few rounds around the house. Just getting some excersice would help me. I got up and changed into my running clothes.

"Going out?"  
I let out a small yelp as I spun around to see Will standing in the living room doorway.  
"Yeah," I breathed, "I was going to take a run."  
He frowned at me. "You shouldn't be going out at night."  
I just shrugged. "I'm used to it."  
"You really want to go and take a run now?"  
"Yeah, can't sleep."  
"Okay, let me put my shoes on."  
"Why?" I asked him, I didn't get why _he_ needed shoes.  
"I'm coming with you of course. Not letting you go out by yourself."

I felt even more frustrated with myself now, so I ran as fast as I could, all the time being extremely aware of Will running next to me. All I needed was to get tired. Uriel had always been able to keep up with my easily, so I was guessing Will wouldn't have any problem with it either. Well, obviously he didn't. When we got back to the house, I was panting, but he was breathing calmly, totally at ease.  
"Warm milk?" Will asked as he headed to the kitchen.  
I followed him in. "Only if it's chocolate milk, I replied."  
He poured some chocolate milk into a pan and sat down at one of the stools at the counter. I went to stand opposite of him, with the counter between us. We were both silent, I was trying to think of something to say, but then Will started up the conversation.  
"You became good friends with Uriel?"  
Relieved to be talking about anything at all, I replied: "Yeah, Uri was the first one I met, well, after Yves and Phoenix, of course. We've been mailing a lot and usually go out for walks together."  
"You are e-mailing with Uri?"  
I was surprised he didn't know this.  
"Didn't he say that? He lives with you right?"  
"Yeah, but I've been traveling," Will said, "I haven't been keeping in touch with any of them lately."  
"Really? Where have you been to?"  
"Oh, just around." It sounded like he didn't want to answer the question.  
I turned around to get two cups out of the cabinet and put the on the counter. Then turned for the pan again.

Hot!  
A flash of pain went through my head, as Will shouted:  
"No!"  
Both of my hands went to my head, holding it, I felt tears coming up.  
"Are you okay? Does your hand hurt?"  
I couldn't talk yet. The pain in my head was too unexpected, but I felt it fade away already. Will tried to get my hands from my head to check them.  
"No," I tried, "no, my hands are fine. It's my head, it's my head that hurts."  
"Your head? You didn't touch the pan?"  
"No, I didn't take the pan."  
Will sighed. "Good, that would have made a bad burn." He looked at me. "But what happened with your head?"  
"I don't know, I just felt a sudden burst of pain. I never had it before and it's gone already. But still, I think I'll be of to bed now."  
"That might be a good idea. Do you want a painkiller?"  
"No, thank you. Good night."  
All of a sudden, the little energy I had left was gone as well. I felt totally drained and exhausted, by the time I got to my bed I didn't bother changing any more, I just lay down and easily fell asleep. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: Like most writers, I love to read reviews and find out what you think!**

**Chapter 6.**

Hot!  
I woke up hearing Will's voice in my head. I shook it off. Nonsense. For whatever reason my head had hurt last night. I must have dreamed Will's voice up. I changed into comfortable clothes and went down for breakfast.  
When I walked into the kitchen, Phee was sitting on Yves lap, Uriel was at a stool by the counter and Will was making eggs.  
"Good morning, want some?" Will pointed his spatula at the pan.  
"Yes, thank you."  
"How's your head?"  
Uriel looked up from his plate, surprised.  
"Uhm. Fine, it didn't hurt anymore by the time I went to sleep."  
"What happened?"  
Before I could say something, Will answered Uriel.  
"Linda couldn't sleep last night, we went for a run and made some hot chocolate milk, but she got a headache."  
"More like a flash of pain. I don't know what it was. But I'm fine now."  
"Maybe Xav..."  
"Uri." Will's eyes shot to me and then to Uri. "I'm fine."  
"If you have it again ask Xav about it tomorrow."  
As if I was going to ruin their family holiday. I just nodded, my eyes drifting to Will again.

Phee and Yves got up from their chair.  
"Ready to go guys?"  
I didn't know what the plan was, so I looked at Phee for explaining.  
"We're spending the days at the Benedicts' house. Are you coming?"  
I looked at my full plate. Phee followed my gaze and laughed.  
"Finish your breakfast first."  
"I'll wait up for you." Uriel told me. "You guys go ahead."  
"You should just go with them, I'll stay here, I have work to catch up on." I felt like I was invading on their family time too much already. I was going to be there tomorrow. And I would like the time alone. This family never paused, there was always something going on, whether it was singing, playing a board game or a physical activity. I was looking forward to a quiet day.  
"Are you sure?" Uriel asked me. I knew he didn't like me being alone.  
"You know I don't mind being alone." I told him and he believed me.  
They all got their stuff and left for the Benedicts' house.

After I finished my breakfast I decided to go for another run first. Just seeing Will for the ten minutes at breakfast had made me tense. I reacted strangely to him. I didn't understand what it was, but I felt drawn to him as to a magnet. Him looking at me made my skin prickly and I got restless everytime I was around him. The run didn't fully help so I took a long hot shower as well. That at least helped my muscles to relax and I calmed down.

I could concentrate on my work again and worked on my laptop for a few hours. I didn't stop to have lunch, but only ate some fruit – a bad habit I knew I should overcome, but I just didn't allow myself the time to make sandwiches. After a few hours I noticed it was getting dark, so I switched on some lights. I was hungry so I decided to cook for myself, the rest were probably staying at the Benedicts' house for dinner.

I put on water to boil for pasta and made a tomato sauce. After that I made slices in a baguette, filling it with garlic butter and then baking it in the oven. Just as I poured the water from the pasta, I heard a voice at the door.  
"What are you doing?"  
My heart jumped and I let the pan slip, by instinct trying to catch it and burning my hand in the action. Will walked over to me, grabbed a towel to take the pan from me and I cooled my hand with cold water.  
"So, pans and you don't go well together?"  
"They normally do," I grumbled, annoyed.  
Will just laughed at my annoyance. "Mom send me to pick you up, she didn't want you to eat dinner by yourself."  
"You're too late, I already cooked. Can't let this food go to waste."  
"Yes, that would be a shame," he agreed, "I'll call mom." He took out his phone and waited for Karla to answer. "Mom, Linda already cooked for herself, I'll stay here and eat with her."  
I lifted my eyebrow at him, Will winked at me.

I plated up for Will and myself and we sat down at the kitchen table. As we started to eat, I tried to think of something to talk about, but there was an awkward silence. At least, I felt awkward, Will seemed to be perfectly at ease. After a few minutes, he broke the silence.  
"Did you make the sauce yourself?"  
I swallowed.  
"Yes, I normally make the pasta and bread myself as well, but I didn't have the time for it now, I was feeling too hungry."  
His eyes widened a bit.  
"You make pasta yourself?"  
"I like to bake and cook. It's satisfying to know you made your meal from scratch."  
"So I assume you made some dessert as well?"  
"Not yet, but I can make something quick."  
I got up and took the plates.  
"You're going to have to help though." I told him, looking over my shoulder.  
Will got up as well and came to the counter. I handed him two apples.  
"Peel these apples for me, and cut them into small pieces."  
Will started to peel the apples and I got flour, butter and sugar. I weighed the right amounts and starting kneading them. I used three quarter of it to fill two bowls, put in the apple pieces with some sugar and cinnamon and then crumbled the rest of the dough on top of it. As I put it in the oven, I could feel Will's eyes on me.

We sat at the counter eating our desserts.  
"Mom hasn't put you on dessert duty for tomorrow?"  
"Oh no! I offered, but she wouldn't let me do anything. All I'm allowed to do is show up, sit and be pretty and maybe sing some."  
He laughed out loud, I liked the sound of it.  
"My mother said that?" He kept laughing.  
I grinned sheepishly. "Actually, Uri said that."  
He stopped laughing and looked at me seriously.  
"Well, I can't disagree with him."  
What did he mean? As he kept looking at me, I could feel the breath catching in my throat again. Will leaned towards me and I wondered if he was going to kiss me. I hoped he would kiss me. And that thought made me understand my reaction to him. I was attracted to him.  
Just as he was really going to kiss me, we heard the front door open.

Aaahhh...  
I heard a moan in my head as I felt the same pain as last night seering through it. Will had his eyes closed, and I quickly blinked away my tears, before he opened his eyes again.  
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." he sighed, "I need some air."  
Will got up and went outside through the kitchen door. As the door closed, Uriel came walking in through the other door.  
"Where's Will going?"  
"He said he needed some air." I answered him.  
Uriel looked at me and I felt my cheecks burn even more.  
"Are you okay?"  
"Yeah, fine." He decided not to ask anything else.  
"I'll go see about Will."  
As he left, this time Phoenix and Yves came walking in.  
"Where's Uri going?" Yves asked.  
I laughed, explained and asked about their day. After a few minutes Uriel came walking back in and looked at Yves. Yves nodded at him, but didn't say anything. Phoenix was telling me they were planning on going to the Benedicts' house early the next day, because of all the preparations they still needed to do for dinner.

"I'll be fine," I assured her, "I'll just go for a walk."  
"Oh, you don't want to do that," Uri said, "The snow has started."  
"I love the snow! I always go walking in the snow at home."  
Uriel stayed serious. "You don't want to go walking in this snow. It falls fast and there's a lot of it. It'll only take a week for the skiing area to be ready for use."  
"Dad will be glad," Yves added, "The snow is falling late this year."  
"Anyway, it's part of the reason we want you to come right away tomorrow morning. Then we don't have to ride through the snow a second time."  
"I'll just bring my laptop and a book then."  
Will came walking in, his hair and coat covered in snow.  
He walked past us to the other hall way. Yves and Phoenix got up as well, heading for the living room. Uriel asked if I wanted to play a board game with them, so I joined them. Phee asked Will to join as well but he said he was tired, earning him strange looks from both Uri and Yves, though they didn't comment on it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7.**

As soon as we got out of the car, Will walked away from me and headed inside. Karla was walking through the living room, giving out orders. It was always fun to watch her leading her household, such a small woman, but she had all of them running for her with a single word.  
"Uri, get extra blankets from the attic please, dad is already setting up extra beds." Karla looked at Will. "Will, you get to the kitchen with Yves. Girls," she gestured to Phee, Diamond and Sky, "please help set up the beds." Then she looked at me. "You sit down dear."  
"Karla, I can help, I don't mind."  
"No need, dear, you're a guest, you just sit down."  
Trace came walking over to me.  
"My mother is setting up beds because of the snow. She thinks we'll be snowed in by the time it's evening."  
Uriel walked past me, commenting: "And mom's usually right." He and Trace smiled at each other, it seemed like an inside joke. One I didn't get.

I knew Karla wasn't going to let me help with anything, no matter how much I insisted, so I took my laptop and went to the living room. I took off my shoes and made myself comfortable on the couch. I knew I wouldn't get any work done, so I settled for a game. After a while Phee looked in.  
"Brunch is ready, you hungry?"  
I got up and went to the kitchen. The only place left for me to sit was next to Will. Great. After last night, I didn't know what to think of him. As soon as I sat down, my skin started tingling. He made me feel nervous without saying a word. Conversation soon started and Will turned to me.  
"I'm sorry about last night." He said quietly. "I shouldn't have..."  
"It's okay," I assured him, "You don't need to apologize."  
As he opened his mouth to say something again, Karla got up from her seat.  
"Vick!"  
She hurried to the door as Victor walked in. He looked around the room as he let his mother hug him and his eyes stayed on me for a second. He made me wonder how I ever thought Zed looked scary. He was nothing compared to Victor. The way he smiled at his mother showed me that he could be a very kind person, but his features breathed 'dangerous'. More people got up from the table to greet Victor but I stayed at my seat. Will remained in his seat as well. When everybody went to sit down again Victor walked towards me.

"Oh, sorry!" Phee said, "Vick, this is Linda, she's from The Netherlands."  
I put out my hand to him, but he ignored it and looked at Will.  
"You found her! Good for you, Will!"  
Will looked just as confused as I felt. What was Victor talking about?  
"No, Vick, she's not..." Saul's told him.  
"Sure she is, she's got strong shields though, been blocking me from the minute I got in, but you do that as well."  
I didn't understand him. Blocking? Shields? Was I supposed to know what this was about?  
"Oh my God," I heard Karla whisper.  
"Vick, a word outside." Saul walked up to him and took him outside. All the men followed, except for Uriel and Will. Will's head snapped up as if he heard something and he walked out as well. Uriel touched my hand and I felt a flash of pain through my head. He saw me grimacing.  
"Are you okay?"  
"It's just my head."  
"Well, I'm definitely making Xav take a look at you when he gets home."  
"Fine," I sighed, "But tomorrow then, okay?" I wanted to know what all of this was about. "What was Victor talking about?"  
"He just thought you were Will's girlfriend."  
"But why would he say Will found me? And that talk about blocking and shields? I don't get it."  
"You don't understand any of it, do you?" Sky asked me as she shot a look at Uriel. He looked a bit more distant than he usual did, as if he was concentrating on something else as well.  
"No, I really don't," I answered her.  
"Don't worry about it. I'll go sort it out." Uriel assured me, or was he assuring the others? He stood up and walked out as well. The girls all sprang into action. Karla told Phee and Diamond to put all the food on the kitchen counter, if anyone still wanted to eat, they could just help themselves later on. Sky asked me to come to the piano. I knew I wasn't going to get any answers, so I followed her out. I still thought it was strange, but I also trusted Uriel, he would explain things to me later.

After a while everyone came walking in again. Zed walked over to Sky, Victor looked at me suspiciously, making me shiver. I saw Saul sending him a warning look. Uriel motioned for me to come sit on the couch with him, which I did. Conversations started filling the room, but I could feel no one was really genuinely engaging. There seemed to be a collective sigh in the room when we heard the front door open.  
"That must be Xav and Crystal!" Karla got up and headed for the door. Before she reached it, it had already opened. I could immediately see that this was another Benedict brother, he must be the tallest one of them. Crystal's eyes zoomed in on me immediately.  
"Will, you found her!" She shouted and walked over to me.  
I stood up from the couch and stepped back. I didn't fully register Uriel coming to stand next to me. This was the second time today someone in this family said Will had found me. Since I wasn't anywhere near Will, I knew it wasn't a coincidence. I still didn't know what it meant, but I was definitely freaked out now.

"What is this about?" I demanded to know.  
Everyone in the room was looking at me now. Crystal looked confused, like she didn't get my reaction. Will looked thunderstruck, Victor's expression was even more grim and Uriel tried to take my arm.  
"Linda, let us explain."  
"Explain what?"

_Can you hear me? _  
I felt another flash of pain through my head and I couldn't stop from myself from making a whimpering sound. This time I knew for certain that it was Will's voice inside my head. But how was that possible? You don't hear other people's voices in your head. Will took a step towards me, speaking in my head again.  
_Can you? Can you hear me? _  
I grimaced and Uriel stepped in front of me.  
"You're hurting her Will."  
"We're scaring her." Sky said.  
"I need some air." I told Uriel.  
"No! She'll leave!" Zed exclaimed.  
Right he was. I wanted to get away from here. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know if I could trust them. Or trust my head, even.  
"Calm her down, Vick." Saul requested.  
Victor looked at me and I felt stings in my head. This time, I couldn't stop myself from crying out. Without wanting it, my hands both went to my head, holding it.  
"Please stop," I whimpered, panic racing through my body.  
"You're hurting her Vick, stop it!" Uriel called as he sat down beside me and held my shoulders. How did I get on the floor? Then the pain stopped. But it was already to much. I opened my eyes, looked at Uriel and then everything went black. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8.**

I heard the voices before I opened my eyes.  
"She'll be waking up in a minute or so." I didn't fully recognize this voice, it had to be Xavier.  
"Could you help her?" That voice I did recognize, it was Uriel.  
"There was nothing wrong with her physically, she just fainted. Mentally... I didn't get anything, it was like a barrier I couldn't push past."  
"I felt that as well," I shivered, that was Victor, "She wasn't shielding me, I would have been able to break through a shield. It's like she's a shield herself."  
"Alright, let's give her some more space. Everyone out." I could hear the concern in Saul's voice.  
"Dad, we don't know who she is." Victor protested.  
"I said out, Vick, you'll be close by enough if needed." Saul was firm now.  
I heard footsteps leaving the room and decided it would be safe to open my eyes now. Uriel let out a small sigh.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"  
I checked the room to see Will standing on the other end of the room with Phee and Yves. Karla and Saul were sitting on the couch and Uriel was next to me, they had moved me to a couch as well.  
"Uhm... Confused. Scared. But physically fine, if that's what you meant." I sat up. "Listen, I'd really like to leave."  
"I'm afraid we can't let you go outside, dear." Karla said. Phee's face turned pale as she took Yves' arm.  
"We can't keep her here against her will!"  
Will started to reply, but Yves assured Phee.  
"Mom means because of the weather." He turned to me. "It's really not safe to go outside now, Linda."  
"Not even to your house?"  
"Not even such a small ride, sorry."  
"Can I just get some time alone then?" I asked all of them in general. I really needed to sort out my mind and the best way to do it was alone. Well, the best way was going out for a run, but since I couldn't go outside...  
"Of course, I'll take you to my room." Uriel took my arm and helped me up.  
"I can take her." Will said, making me flinch. He saw it and looked hurt, making me feel bad. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I couldn't help it. Even though my body was telling me I could trust him, even still felt drawn to him, my mind couldn't agree just yet. I really had to think things through.

As Uriel took me up the stairs, I asked him: "Now what is all of this about?"  
"Short version?" He laughed, "I don't know how much to tell you without spooking you too much. But I guess you'll be spooked either way. We are savants, my entire family." He looked at me intently, awaiting my response. When I didn't say anything he continued. "We have gifts, all of us different gifts. The more general ones like being able to talk to each other without speaking – telepathy, but also moving objects – telekineses. And then we each have our unique gift."  
"Like a special power?" I said, making him laugh out loud.  
"Maybe, something like it." We got to his room and Uriel opened the door.  
"You really don't know what all of this is about, do you?"  
I sighed. "I really, really don't. I don't even know if I believe what you're telling me."  
A pack of socks shot through the room, making me startle.  
"Yeah," Uri smiled, "I did that. I'm telling you the truth, Linda."  
I heard a loud noise coming from downstairs and turned around.  
"That's Will," Uri told me, "He's mad dad won't let him go up."  
"Why?"  
"Because he wants to be there for his soulfinder."  
"What is a soulfinder? You mean, like, soulmate?"  
"Something like that. Let me explain that later. Listen. Take some time to think, but please, let me and Sky talk to you before you decide on anything."  
Why did he want me to talk to Sky?  
"I think Sky can relate to you. She didn't know she was a savant either."  
"I don't think I am though, Uriel. I can't do telepathy or telekineses and I've never noticed some kind of power I should have."  
"Just promise me you'll talk to Sky and me."  
I caved. "Fine, I promise."  
"Thank you, I'll be back in an hour?" I nodded and watched him leave the room, he closed the door behind him. I was about to sit down on one of the three beds when I heard voices in the hallway.

"Let me go see her."  
"You can't go in there Will."  
"You want to re-think that comment, Uri?" Will's voice sounded like ice.  
"Nope." Uriel didn't sound concerned at all. "She said she wanted some time alone and that's what I promised her."  
"She's my soulfinder."  
"But she doesn't know that. She doesn't know anything about us or our life. And she asked to be left alone, which I told her she could have. Zed tells me you'll only make things worse if you go in right now."  
I didn't hear anymore talk but someone went down the stairs fast and hard, I guessed that was Will. Seconds later the sound of softer and lighter footsteps faded as well.

The hour went by too fast, I jumped up from a knock at the door.  
"Can we come in?"  
I opened the door and gestured for Sky and Uriel to come inside. When we all sat down, Sky started explaining.  
"I'll try to keep it short," she smiled: "I had a rough childhood. I came to my parents when I was ten, I didn't know I was a savant or had a gift. Because of the things that had happened to me, I thought I was making the lights around people up – I can see emotions, yours are telling me that you're confused. But I can also tell that you are believing me, even though you doubt whether it can be true. I found out about being a savant when I met Zed. He is my soulfinder and he explained everything to me. I know how you feel, Linda. Not only can I see it, but I also know, because I went through it myself."  
"But what is all that soulfinder talk?"  
Uri answered me: "For every savant there is a match. A soulfinder. They could be born anywhere on the world, but they are linked to each other by their birthdays. Crystal's gift is to find soulfinders. She can also see the emotional connections people have to each other. Soulfinders don't always find each other, even though we know our other half exists somewhere on the world. But with Crystal, we know where to find our soulfinders. She told Will his soulfinder would be in The Netherlands, so he traveled there, but didn't find you, since you were here. If only he had known! Crystal could've told him, but they didn't keep in touch."  
"You're telling me that I am destined to spent my life with Will. What if I don't want to? What if I fall in love with someone else?"  
"It's not just about love," Sky said, "with your soulfinder, you can speak telepathically as well, but it's different. When you talk to your soulfinder in that way, you know. Zed makes me feel grounded. I can speak telepathically with everyone in this household, but Zed is like my gravity point. It's different, you'll feel it."  
"All I feel is a head ache when he does that."  
_I knew you could hear me!_  
As I heard his voice, it felt like a stab in the head again. Uriel was talking again, but I couldn't hear him.  
_I knew you could hear me! Just say something in return, say something, anything._  
A moan escaped my lips. "I don't know how to." I murmured. Uriel and Sky weren't talking any more.  
_Just acknowledge that you can hear me._ I could see on Uri's face that it dawned on him what was happening.  
"Alright, alright, I can hear you!" I practically screamed.  
_Not like that, answer me like this.  
_"I don't know how to!"  
"She's hurting, Uri." Sky said.  
"I know, I think it's Will." He got up and ran down the stairs.  
_Come on, just say something back, just talk to me. _The headache became too much, I couldn't stand it any more.

_Alright!_ I shouted in my head. It felt like big walls were knocked over inside and the pain was gone.

I was astonished by how sudden my head felt right again. The pain didn't fade, it was just gone. And I felt peaceful, not just painless, not empty, but a peace and a calm overwhelmed me.

_Can you still hear me?  
_It didn't hurt to hear him any more.  
_Yes, yes I can.  
What about the pain? It felt like a quake, like something fell free.  
It did, I don't know what it was, but I don't feel any pain any more.  
I'm coming up._ I felt joy coming through."Wow, you are lighting up!" Sky told me, "What happened?"


	9. Chapter 9

**Let me know what you think!**

**Chapter 9.**

Will walked into the room with Uri right behind him. He immediately came for me and grabbed me in a hug.  
"I knew it would work."  
I tried to make him release me, but he didn't notice. Uriel and Sky did though.  
"Will," Sky said, as Uri put a hand on his arm.  
"Oh," Will stepped back, "What's wrong?"  
What's wrong?. He was right, I could hear him in my head, we could talk like that, but that didn't mean I was just going to happily fall into his arms and be his girlfriend. Not just like that. Relationships needed to grow.  
_I can hear what you're thinking you know_. The message came with hurt. _You still don't believe it?_  
As I looked at him, I could see flashes of colour coming my way as he spoke to me telepathically and my eyes widened.  
_Wow._  
"She can see the telepathy coming at her."  
"Can you see it between me and Sky as well?" Uriel turned to Sky and talked to her. This time the colour was fainter, but I could see it, it was there.  
"Yes, I can see that you're reaching out to her."  
"It looks beautiful," Will squeezed my hand, it was all I could do not to pull my hand away. His eyes looked sad.

I was getting dizzy with all these things, all this new information in my head.  
"I really need some fresh air." I stalked past Will and down the stairs. They all followed me. I went through the kitchen, thinking everyone would be in the living room. I was wrong, the entire family was sitting right there, turning at me as I rushed in. Without thinking, I turned around again. This time only Will followed me. He tried to take my arm, but I shook him off.  
"Seriously! I need some time to myself."  
"The snow..."  
"I don't care about the snow!" I interrupted him. "I just need some time. Outside. Alone."  
"I'm sorry, but I really can't let you go alone."  
"Look. I promise I won't leave. I'll stay close to the house and I'll be right back. I'm just going for a walk." I opened the door and I felt panic seer through me.  
_NO! _  
"It's not safe for you to go outside."  
Saul showed up in the doorway.  
"He's right. Will and I can sense danger. You're safe in this house, but there's a threat for you outside. Faint, but it's there."  
"So you won't let me take a walk."  
"Not by yourself." Saul said it at a pleasant yet determined tone, I knew I couldn't win.  
"What if I walk with her?" Uri showed up in the hallway as well. Saul nodded and Will looked defeated.  
"I don't want to talk," I warned Uriel as we walked outside. He didn't reply but let me lead the way. I kept to my promise and didn't go far from the house. All the information and thoughts whirled in my head, I didn't even know where to start. Knowing I wouldn't be able to put it all in place now, I had to decide which points would be focus now. The danger Will and Saul were talking about? I didn't have any idea what that would be about, so I let that go. The telekineses and telepathy I had seen and heard? There was no doubt those things were true, there wasn't really a good use for thinking about it too much. The soulfinder thing. I had felt attracted to Will even before I knew about it. And my body and mind were telling me this was a given fact. He was my soulfinder, whatever that truly meant. The last thing I didn't understand was why it had hurt first, Will trying to talk to me telepathically. Why didn't it hurt anymore? Victor and Xavier were talking about shields, calling me a barrier. I guessed the barrier had broken down now. Did that mean it wouldn't hurt me anymore if Victor did his thing, whatever it was he did? I sighed and wished that it wasn't the entire family Benedict there waiting for me. I had questions and wanted answers, but I didn't want to talk to all of them at once. I took Uri's hand and let him lead me back to the house.

As we walked into the house, we heard voices in the living room.  
"I know you're frustrated, but you have to give her some time. It seems that she knows even less than Sky did when she came to us."  
"I just want her to trust me, dad. When she doesn't understand something, she looks at Uri. Going for a walk, she does with Uri. It's like she's afraid of me. She's my soulfinder, but Uri is treating her like she's his."  
"That's not fair!" Both men turned as I came walking into the room, Uriel right behind me.  
"You can't blame your brother for what I'm doing, Will. I've known you for three days, but I have known Uri for months already. So yes, whenever I feel insecure I look to the person in this family I know to trust. The fact that I'm your soulfinder doesn't automatically mean that I drop everything and come running to you. I don't know a single thing about you. Even when my body is telling me I can trust you, even though I feel drawn to you, that doesn't mean that it's that easy."  
"It should be."  
"Well, it's not. Maybe I'm too rational for it. I've been told and shown a lot of incredible things today and it's kind off overwhelming me. I don't even know if I can trust my own feelings right now." With that confession I felt the anger leave my body and I slumped down on the couch.

Saul looked at me with empathy.  
"Okay, let's figure this out. Linda, we just want to help you, we all help each other in this family. And being Will's soulfinder makes you part of this family. We want to figure out why you had so much pain with telepathy. It's gone now, is it?"  
"Yes."  
"I know you don't like having everyone here looking at you, but dad and I think it could help. We'd like to call everyone in and try to figure out what's going on."  
Uri smiled encouragingly and nodded, it didn't go unnoticed by Will, which made Uri look apologetic. I decided to reach out and touched Will's hand.  
_I'm sorry._  
_Don't be, you're right, it makes sense, it's not your fault._

"You didn't even have breakfast and it's almost lunch time. Eat something first." I hesitated and Will understood why.  
"Uri, can you get her something to eat?"  
Saul and Uriel walked out together and Uri quickly returned with a plate for me. He left me and Will alone.  
"Eat."  
After I finished eating, we were just sitting there in silence. Since he had found out I was his soulfinder, this was the first time he really let me take my time without saying or trying something. I felt amusement that wasn't mine seeping in as Will smiled at me. He knew what I was thinking.  
"Can we talk first?"  
"Sure, I'll let dad know."  
I expected him to get up and walk away to find his father, but he stayed where he was and I saw a flash floating away from his head. He must've told his father telepathically then.  
"What do you want to talk about?"  
I didn't know what came first. Did I want to know more about Will, or did I want to know more about the situation I was in right now? Both were important to me, even though I didn't know if I wanted to believe the soulfinder thing, everything in my body was telling me that it was true. So I opted on asking about him first.  
"What do you do for a living? What are your hobbies? What are your powers?"  
"Gifts," he corrected me, "We call them gifts. Of course I can do the general things we all can, telepathy and telekineses, but my own gift is sensing danger. Dad can sense danger as well. My gift was telling me that you shouldn't leave the house on your own, even though the danger was still very faint, it was there. I live with Uriel and Victor in Denver. Trace and Diamond live there as well, but you already knew that. I work with them on the family business over there, but that's a little too complicated to explain right now, sorry." I could feel in my body that he wasn't lying. "Like all my brothers, I like physical activities, canoeing being the favorite."  
"How about climbing?" I asked.  
"Climbing isn't one of my favourites, I fell once. I could try again though, if you'd like to go climbing."  
I felt at ease and relaxed in the chair. Getting to know him better was definitely a priority to me right now. I saw a light flashing towards Will, I guessed it was someone talking to him telepathically.  
"Dad wants to know if you're ready."  
"No. But it's going to be done anyway right? I want to know about all of it as well."  
"We can wait until tomorrow if you want to."  
"Best get it out of the way now."  
He squeezed my hand and this time I didn't pull away.


	10. Chapter 10

** Chapter 10.**

As the entire Benedict family walked into the room, I felt myself growing more and more anxious.

"Dad, you really think we need full force?"  
"Well, we don't know, do we? Best to get to the bottom of it at once though."  
Will pulled me closer to him on the couch to make more room for others to sit. To my surprise, it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. I didn't even feel the nervous butterflies you would normally feel when you're around someone you're falling in love with. It felt completely natural, normal and as if I belonged there.  
_That's because you do. _  
Everyone took a seat. Xav gave Will a pat on the head as he walked by and smiled at me.  
"I'm Xavier and that's Crystal." He walked over to her and lifted her on his lap. "Come on, Cupcake, let's do this." Cupcake? I raised an eyebrow at Will.  
_You're not one for sweet little nicknames then, are you?_  
I just shook my head at him, smiling. I felt something brush my mind and as I looked up I saw a flow of energy from Uri and Will glared at him. What was he doing?

"Okay, let's..." Before Saul could finish the sentence, Will cut him off.  
"I think Linda would be a bit more comfortable if we explained a little more about our gifts dad."  
"He might be right," Sky nodded.  
"Okay," Victor started, I could tell that this family was used to him taking charge. Noone seemed to mind that he did. "Trace can track things or people down, Diamond can resolve any argument, no matter how heated it is. Uriel can see the past," he skipped himself and Will, "Xavier is a healer, Crystal a soulfinder, Yves can control fire and Phoenix can stop time, well, make you think that time has stopped for a moment. Zed is the seventh son, which gives him more gifts than any of us, he´s got a bit of all of our gifts, but his most developed gift is seeing the future, just as mom can. And he can tie us all together so he can see the bigger picture, which is what he'll be doing now. You know about Sky, Will and dad. I can manipulate thoughts." I pressed myself a bit tighter to Will, almost everyone noticed my movement.  
"Don't worry, he only uses it for good." Xav winked at me from across the room.  
"Now that you're caught up," Saul began again, "We would like to use our gifts to find out more about you. Zed will tie us and see the bigger picture. We want to know what your gift is and why all this savant stuff is new to you. Even if you grew up with humans, you should've had some idea about you being different."  
"How do you do it? Are you all going to read my mind?"  
"No, it's not mind reading, and we will stay away from things you don't want us to see." Saul assured me.  
_Trust us. Trust me.  
_I wanted to look at Uriel for reassurance, but it felt like this was the point where I had to choose. And I chose Will. I nodded at him and I felt his relief flowing through me.

Everyone held hands with each other. Most of the girls were sitting on the laps of their man. Will didn't hold hands with anyone but held on to me with both hands. Instead his parents sat down on either side of him and held him by his arm. Saul explained that this was the connection needed for everyone to be able to connect and for Zed to be able to see the bigger picture.  
I felt a pounding at my brain and I gasped. Will immediately responded.  
"Everyone stop." He looked at me. "Are you hurt?"  
"No," I breathed. "It's not hurting, just uncomfortable."  
"Let's try again."  
Everyone concentrated again and this time I was prepared for the feeling. I felt that pushing sensation in my head again and as I looked around the room I could see flashes of their gifts shooting towards me. I felt Will reassuring me in my head that it was okay. Then Victor sighed, annoyed.  
"This isn't going to work if you don't let your shield down, Linda."  
"I'm sorry, what?"  
"She doesn't know what you're talking about Vick."  
Victor looked angry and I could see a flash from him to Will. Then I felt a push.  
"Woah." _What was that? _Will was wondering what just happened. Well, so was I.  
I tried to figure out what it was. Victor seemed mad at Will and I saw him sending power to Will, my instinct towards Will kicked in. Apparantly I had stopped it. Judging from the look Victor had on his face, I was right, he had hit a wall when trying to talk to Will.  
_At least I know you'll protect me then._ I felt amusement coming from Will. How could he joke? I didn't understand anything that was happening and he was cracking jokes. My temper flared up, causing Sky to look alarmed, seeing her made me calm down immediately. It didn't matter right now, we were here for a reason.

"Okay, kids, what have we got?" It was weird and at the same time completely natural that Saul called this room full of grown, intimidating men kids.  
"I didn't get anything," Uriel stated, "It was like hitting a wall, Vick is right, she's got a massive shield up."  
"But it's different though, when I checked her earlier to see if she needed healing it was like she was one big barrier, now I could feel she had a shield in place." Xavier added.  
"And you don't know what you're doing?" Saul asked me.  
"I haven't got the faintest clue. I'm not doing anything."  
"Then you're a shield."  
"But I'm not..."  
"Not delibirately, it's your gift. You must be a shield."  
"That is what happened a minute ago, you were shielding me from Vick." Will said.  
"She projected her shield?" Saul asked him. "I haven't heard of any untrained savant who can do that."  
I suddenly felt proud, it wasn't my own pride though, it was Will's. He was happy I was that strong.

As I saw a light go from Saul to Will, we both felt it hit the wall again.  
"Uhm, dad, I can't hear you anymore. Her defenses are still up."  
"Yes, I got that much." He turned to the rest of the people in the room, "Anyone else stopped by the shield?"  
"It seems to be mental. I could sense her physical state, but not her mental state." Xav started.  
"I can see her connection to Will." Crystal added.  
"I can see her colours fine, I've always been able to." Sky said.  
"Same for me," Zed tapped Sky's hand, "I've seen her future actions sometimes, like this morning when she wanted to leave."  
"I've been able to see her energy in other rooms," As Yves said this, Phee began to giggle, and then said: "I can't even reach her mental pattern."  
Trace was the last to comment.  
"I think I could track down objects that she has touched, because of the energy. But I don't know if I could track _her_ down if needed."  
"So definitely a mental shield it is." Will circled the space between my shoulders with his hand and I leaned back into him. I was feeling really tense. I still didn't know about half the things they were talking about. And somehow, apparantly, I had Will under my shield now as well.  
_It's okay, we'll figure it out._

"Let's call it day." Everyone stood up at this comment from Saul. Suddenly I remembered it was Thanksgiving Day, I felt exhausted already and wondered if I could sit through a family dinner right now.  
_No family dinner. _Will assured me._  
But it´s important to your mother.  
_Karla stood up and started giving out orders again. "Yves, go fix us some quick pasta, Uriel will help." She pointed to her other sons, "Plates, cutlery, drinks." As they got an order from her, they all left the room to go do as she said.  
"I'm so sorry, Karla."  
"For what, dear?" She looked very surprised at my apology.  
"For ruining your dinner, I know you made plans."  
"Well, dear, Thanksgiving dinner isn't that important, we got another soulfinder added to the family, that's what's important here."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11.**

The next day Saul tried to connect with Will through telepathy, to see if he would be out from under my shield again. As Victor grew more frustrated, Will became more pleased with the result. Saul wasn't able to reach his mind. And since I didn't know what I had done to get him in my shield or even how the shield itself was held in place, I couldn't help either.  
"It's a good thing, you know. It's how we compliment each other."  
"Compliment each other?"  
"Yeah, soulfinders have this special connection, but their gifts combined are powerful as well. Phee can stop Yves' fire if it get's out of hand. And because Crystal's telepathy works on a different wave-length as ours, she gets physically sick around our normal kind of telepathy, Xav can heal her from it. And the two of us; I can sense the danger and you protect us from it."  
I liked the sound of that.

Various members of the family sat down with me to try and figure out how my shield worked. Sky had tried to see it, but she couldn't, she said that part of the shield was that it hid himself. Victor tried to break through my shield with blunt force, causing Will to run into the room. Even from the other end of the house, Will had felt the invasion on the shield. He got mad at Victor and told him to stay away from me. Saul explained that it wasn't Victor trying to hurt me, he was just the most practical one and did whatever he felt necessary. Even though the shield didn't even budge, him trying to get through it didn't feel right and I became even more afraid of Victor.

By lunchtime I was feeling mentally exhausted. Everyone kept forgetting Will was under my shield and different people kept trying to talk to him telepathically. My shield had had to endure pushes all morning and I was getting annoyed. When we sat down at the table, Zed spoke up.  
"I think you should take Linda up the mountain, Will."  
"Great idea, I'll come as well." Xav immediately said, earning him groans from more than one person at the table. "What? It's the only chance I'll get at skiing, we're leaving tomorrow morning!" As Crystal looked at him, his expression changed, like something dawned on him and I noticed I couldn't see their telepathic communication like I could see the other's. It must be because they were on a different wave length, as Will called it.  
"Just go to the west side," Zed told Xav, "You'll be good there."  
"I don't know," Will started, "I think Linda should rest, she's pretty worn out."  
I couldn't help but feeling irritated. Being soulfinders made us share our emotions and thoughts, even more so because he was under my shield, but that didn't mean that he magically completely understood me. Whenever I felt mentally tired, I would go and work out. Have a run, climb a wall, exhausting myself physically made me feel better. He didn't know that, because he didn't know _me._  
_You're right. I don't know you. Yet. Let's go out then._

"Can we run?"  
"Zed cleared a path this morning." He gestured to his right. "Over there."  
Without waiting for him, I started running. I knew he would keep up with me, all Benedict brothers were in good physical shape, I wouldn't be able to outrun either one of them.  
When we got to the end of the path, I saw the path ended at a skiing area. This looked to be the easy part.  
"Do you ski?" Will asked me.  
"I've done it a few times, but I'm not that good."  
"Maybe we could do it together this winter."  
"Sounds like fun," I smiled.  
We walked to a bench and sat down. The snow made these mountains look beautiful, everywhere I looked it was white. I felt calm again, for the first time in two days. When I shivered, Will scooted over to sit closer to me, putting his arm around me. He was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous. Was the part where he was finally going to kiss me? He chuckled. _Finally, huh?_ He leaned his head in and his mouth touched mine. It felt like electricity going through my body, it felt new and special, but at the same time it felt familiar, as if we had been kissing a hundred times before. I reached out and threw my arms around his neck. My body was getting colder, but I didn't register it, I was too focused on Will. He lifted me up with ease and put my on his lap, leaving my lips untouched for only a brief second. I drew back to look at him, cupped his face in my hands and kissed him again. I could feel that the fire holding me, was running through him as well. Neither of us wanted to let go. His hands went up my back and that made my coat go up a bit, giving my goosebumps. He immediately drew back and pulled my coat back down. Will looked just as amazed as I felt. I also felt a bit shy now, my reaction was pretty fervid. It was nice to finally just have some peace and sit in silence. I didn't want to talk about being a savant, gifts, our soulfinder connection or my shield. Will seemed to understand.

"So... I finally kissed you?"  
"Well," I blushed, "yes. Why didn't you kiss me that evening we had dinner together? I thought you would."  
"Well, I wasn't going to kiss a girl when I knew I was already taken."  
I pulled away from him. "You have a girlfriend?"  
"No!" He pulled me back into his arms. "I don't. I didn't. But Crystal had seen you. She had told me my soulfinder would be in The Netherlands. I didn't want to kiss you, because I really liked you. I didn't want to lead you on. If you hadn't been my soulfinder... Well... I have dated girls before. But I wasn't going to fool around anymore. I was waiting for my soulfinder."  
I had accepted the soulfinder thing. I had accepted being a savant. And even though I still felt his explanation didn't fully explain it, I let it go. Instead I though of something else.  
"If Crystal can see your soulfinders, why haven't Victor and Uri found theirs yet?"  
"Crystal can tell you where your soulfinder is at that moment. So when she told me where you were, she could tell me you were in The Netherlands. Like Uri, I decided to go and look for you, see if I could find you. I bet that if I had called Crystal, she could've told me you had left for America. But I didn't call her and – of course – she wasn't constantly looking where you were.  
Uri's soulfinder is in Africa. He went to look for her, but didn't find her. He's been twice now."  
"Why didn't he call Crystal?"  
"He does. But his soulfinder seems to be on the move. Everytime he reaches a place Crystal tells him to go, there's no one there. We haven't figured out what it is yet."  
I shivered and Will got up.  
"Let's head back."

"What about Victor?" I asked as we started down the path.  
"Victor is just too practical. He says he can't leave the job to go and find his soulfinder. He knows she's in Afghanistan. And based on what Crystal said, he knows it won't be easy to get his soulfinder. So he's waiting until he can actually take time of from work."  
I thought I could've guessed that. Victor really, really didn't seem like the romantic type. But then again, neither did Uri. Uri was nice, sweet, but also practical. I had come to know him as someone who saw what needed to be done and did it. I was glad I had found Will, well, maybe he had found me. And even though I saw him as practical, I could easily imagine Uri with a soulfinder as well.  
As we almost reached the house I wondered how I would feel after this weekend. I only knew him for less than a week but I already felt lonely thinking about having to go back to the university and not being around Will.  
_You're not going anywhere._ He thought it with reassurance, but that was not what I felt.  
"What do you mean I'm not going anywhere?"  
"You're staying here of course. Mom will fix you a room after the rest of the family is gone tomorrow."  
"I can't just stay here. I've got things to do at the university. I can't just drop everything and stay here."  
We had reached the house now and were standing at the back door.  
"Of course you can. I did. I already quit my job in Denver."  
"You did what?" Unbelievable!  
"I quit my job in Denver. Dad's hiring me for as long as I need a job here. We can figure out where to go together after we've figured out all of this."  
"All of this?"  
"Yes. You, finding out you're a savant, you have a lot to learn and we can teach you. And I'm not letting you go anywhere until I find out what this danger towards you is."  
_Let_ me go anywhere? Was he serious?  
"You think you can just tell me what to do?"  
I opened the door and stalked through the kitchen, not concerned about the people looking at me. Will followed closely as I went up the stairs.

"Where are you going?"  
"I'm cold, I need a shower."  
He kept close to me and looked startled as I spun around to face him, making him bump into me. I pushed him back.  
"I just need a shower. I need some time to myself. Please leave me alone."  
As I closed the door, he began to talk to me telepathically. I guessed he didn't want to make an even bigger scene with his whole family in this house, being able to hear us.  
_Listen, my first priority is to keep you safe. And I can't do that if you go off on your own. _  
_Leave me alone._ I moaned.  
_I just want you to understand._  
_Fine. I understand, please leave me alone now.  
Linda...  
Leave. Me. Alone! _I didn't say one word aloud, but physically I felt like I had screamed. It was quiet in my head now and I felt like a band was surrounding me. My best guess was that I was actually feeling my shield now. It seemed to be connected to the anger and frustration I was feeling. I was so focused on the feeling, trying to adjust to it, that I barely registrered the gasp I heard on the other end of the door.  
"Dad!"


	12. Chapter 12

** Chapter 12.**

"Dad!"  
A door opened and footsteps came towards the bathroom.  
"What's going on Will?"  
"I can't hear her. I can't feel her. I can't reach her."  
"So she pushed you out. Crystal does that to me all the time." Xav sounded careless about it.  
"Maybe, but Crystal isn't a new-found savant, who happens to be a shield, with no idea of how to use her gifts, is she?"  
I could hear Xav was more serious now, even though he still joked. "I'm sure she's fine. She's just finally gotten enough of you."  
"Not funny, Xav." Saul said as he came walking up the stairs. His steps stopped at the other end of my door and he knocked on it. "Are you okay Linda?"  
"What if something's wrong with her?"  
"Really, Will? What do you think happened, the shower curtain attacked her?"  
"Xav." Saul snapped, his usual calm voice sounding sharp now.  
"Linda, if you don't answer, I'm going to kick in this door." Will almost had a full-on panic attack. I sighed, with frustration as well as exhaustion. I didn't even know if I could keep him out, it strained me.

_Fine._ _I'm fine. Now can I just please take a shower without everyone hovering over me?_  
Will's relief washed over me.  
"She answered me. Nothing's wrong. Let's go down."  
Xav and Saul start asking Will what happened, but I didn't pay attention any more. I finally got to take my shower in silence.  
It helped. I still felt on edge, but the water calmed me down a bit again. As I walked out, Will came walking up the stairs. As he saw me he raised both hands.  
"Just want to take a shower myself. Mom made you some snacks in the kitchen."

Karla handed me a plate and I took a seat at the kitchen table. Phee and Yves were sitting on the other end of the table and Xav was standing at the counter, talking to Victor. Karla sat down beside me.  
"Would you like to stay in Will's room or would you like another one? Will thought you might feel more comfortable in his room."  
I looked at her but didn't answer. What was she talking about? I turned to Phee and Yves who were both watching me as well.  
"What do you mean Karla?" I turned to Phee; "Aren't we going back to your house? The snow has cleared enough hasn't it?"  
"We're going home tonight, but Will thought you might want to stay here."  
"I'm sorry, but I don't think so, I don't belong here."  
"Of course you do dear, you're our daughter now."

What? For the umpteenth time in just a few days I felt like I wanted to flee. I got up and headed for the door.  
_Don't go out on your own!_ Will didn't want me to leave. Victor positioned himself in front of the door but Xavier looked at me.  
"Let's go."  
I walked out and Xavier followed me.  
"I promise I'll be quiet."  
And for a few minutes he did. I was really getting sick of this situation. I didn't know what was happening and all of them were telling me things I didn't agree with. Will tried to tell me what to do and where to go. His mother as well. Victor was really getting on my nerves. Uri seemed to be avoiding me today, I'm sure Will put him up to that. Karla calling me her daughter. As if I didn't already have a family! And every single time I wanted some time to myself, one of the Benedict brothers kept following me because Will sensed some danger surrounding me. I believed him but at the same time it was hard to believe. Why would I be in danger? It didn't make sense.  
"You know, we all just mean well. We just want to help you. And with people leaving tomorrow, we just want to try and find out things quickly."  
"Didn't you promise me you would shut up?"  
"Yeah, but..."  
"Shut, up, Xavier."  
"Woah, just Xav, only my mother calls me Xavier. Well, Crystal as well, but only when she's..."  
"Xav." I interrupted him.  
"Right. Quiet it is." He made a gesture as if closing his mouth, but I didn't pay attention. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking either. Which was why I didn't see a low branch hanging and it hit me in my face. It burned, but even that I didn't really register because of my anger.  
"Let me look at that."  
"No."  
"Really, I can just..."  
"No, Xav."  
He backed away and respected my privacy. When I got to the end of the trail, I saw the bench Will and I had sat on earlier today.

I sat down and closed my eyes, trying to calm myself. All this time Xav didn't say a word. After a while I felt the bench shift a bit as Xav sat down. I opened my eyes and looked at him.  
"Here, take my coat, you must be cold."  
Now he said it I realized he was right. I hadn't put on a coat and was feeling cold. I still didn't want his though.  
"No thank you." At least I managed to be polite this time. Xav stretched out his hand and touched my arm, gasping a bit.  
"You're freezing! Please take my coat." He got up from the bench and put the coat on my shoulders. I shook it of and stood up as well, my anger fully flared up again.  
"Can't any of you Benedicts take no for an answer? Do you need to order me around and tell me what to do? Are all the other girls just fine with that? Because I am not! I don't like to be told what to do. I can make my own decisions and I'm sick and tired of you all treating me like a child!"  
I was kind of hoping he would shout back at me. I was in the mood for a good fight. But Xav surprised me by stepping towards me. He didn't say a word, but caught my arm. The tears of anger I had in my eyes begun to run freely and I leaned into Xavier. He now really pulled me into his arms and let me cry.  
My eyes were red and puffy and I had a headache – again –, but it had felt good to just cry it out. Xav looked at my face and put his hand on my cheeck. It started to feel warm and my headache went away. I knew he must've healed the cut I'd got from the branch as well. I took his coat without complaining about it and we headed back to the house.  
Will was waiting outside for us. I wondered why he hadn't come running to me when I was crying but remembered that he wasn't under my shield anymore. Maybe he had communicated with Xav about it.  
_Yeah. Xav said it was best to just leave you. I wanted to come though. Was Xav right? _  
_Yes he was, I'm sorry.  
You have nothing to be sorry about._ He assured me. _We should be sorry, you're right. We tend to look at a problem and want to solve it without consulting first. We act, then think. We'll include you more. No, not more, it's your call from now on. _  
I walked up to him, smiled and hugged him. With a small groan Will lifted me up and kissed me. When I turned around, Xav was gone.  
"We should go inside. Dad has an idea."  
Not letting go of me, Will turned us both around and opened the door.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13.**

Will pulled me on his lap before I could sit down on a chair. But I didn't mind at all, I didn't want to let go of him either. I cried in Xav´s arms because Xav was there, but it made me recognize even more that I really wanted to be with Will.  
"Can you try to remember how it felt when you pushed Will out of your shield?" Saul interrupted my thoughts and I tried to focus on how it had felt.  
"I don't know, it just literally felt like I shoved him out."  
"Like a physical push?"  
"Yes, I think I'd describe it like that."  
"Can you focus on the shield part of it? How did the shield feel when you pushed him?"  
I thought back, trying to remember what I felt. I never even know the shield existed, it was a part of me. Trying to feel it was almost impossible.  
_Don't focus on trying to feel the shield now, try to focus on what was different when you pushed me out._  
That helped and I remembered there was a difference in how it felt. I just didn't know how to explain it to them.  
_Try to make it into an image, that should help. _  
I immediately saw an house with an open door.  
"It felt like opening a door and closing it again." This helped me to describe how it felt to keep him out as well. "Keeping him out felt like I had to forcefully keep the door shut to him. I didn't want him to come back in." _Sorry. _I added to Will, he squeezed my hand.  
"Do you think you could try to open the door again? We think that if you can open the door again, maybe we could see this time."  
I understood in which direction this was going.  
"You want to do another circle with the family?"  
"We think we should at least try."  
"No way!" Will said, "She has been through enough. We can't put her through that right now."  
"We can't wait Will, everyone is leaving tomorrow. You know they would stay if needed, but it doesn't seem necessary right now, so they want to leave. They've got jobs to get back to." Saul looked at me, "But only if you are okay with it."  
I could feel Will's emotion, the want to protect me.  
_You said I would decide from now on._  
He knew I was right and nodded.

"Vick is going to talk you through it. As you know, he can manipulate the mind a bit. He won't manipulate you!" Saul quickly added after seeing my face, "but he can help you to stay focused so you will be able to let the shield down long enough for us to try and read you."  
Last night I sat next to Will, as close as I could, but now he pulled me on his lap. I didn't mind at all. Everyone was in the same position as yesterday. Victor started to talk to me.  
"Dad says you described it as a house. Visualize your shield as a house and try to open the door. It might have some locks on it, but you can get through those. The door might need pushing, but that's just your mind trying to tell you the door won't open. It can open and it can be easily opened by you. You control the shield, you can make it do whatever you want it to do."  
I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, trying to visualize a house. Within seconds I felt myself panicking. Will felt it as well.  
_Focus on my breaths._  
I listened to him and made my breath follow his pattern of breathing.  
_Visualize the house._  
I saw a house in my mind as Will squeezed my arm.  
_Look at the door and try to open it. Like Vick said, it _is_ easy to open it. You can do it.  
_I looked at the house and focused on opening the door.  
_Good. Now keep it open, so..._  
I felt the door snap shut again as my eyes opened just as fast. Victor had talked to me telepathically. He looked annoyed now.  
"You have to keep it open for us to..."  
"Back off Vick."  
_This isn´t going to work. Not with him in my head._  
I felt ashamed admitting it, but it was true. Victor still scared me and the idea of him in my head...  
"It's okay," Will touched my cheek, "I'll guide you through it."  
I saw him sending a telepathic message to Victor. Victor didn't seem to like it, but accepted it anyway.  
"That went well, let's try it again." Saul said cheerfully.

I focused on Will's breathing and his instructions again and managed to open the door again. This time Victor didn't talk to me telepathically, but Zed did. It surprised me for a bit, but it didn't scare me like Victor had.  
_This isn't enough, just opening the door. I can see the bigger picture, just opening the door allows for one person to look at a time. To make it faster, you should blow the roof off, that will open your shield up completely. _I could feel the smile that came with his comment.  
Will helped me to concentrate and I focused on the roof. I took Zed's advice and blew it off at once.  
"Put it back up!" Will's voice was full of panic. The roof snapped back in it's place and I looked at Will. But he wasn't looking at me, he was talking to his father.  
"Did you feel that?"  
"Yes, I did." Saul replied.  
"What are you talking about?" Victor demanded to know.  
"When she fully opened her shield, she became in more danger. We have to stop."  
Victor sighed. "If we don't do this, we won't find out anything more."  
"Didn't you hear me? It. Put's. Her. In danger. We're not doing it."  
Victor started talking but I interrupted him.  
"Yes we are." I poked my finger at Will's chest. "I say we do it. Like your father said, people will be leaving tomorrow. And I want to find out as much as I can about myself before they leave."  
"But it's..."  
"A calculated risk. Not doing it, means we find out nothing. If I am in danger, maybe finding out more about me, can help in finding out more about what the danger is. If we don't know what the danger is, how do you think to keep me from it? Just hide me away here?" I shook my head. "Not gonna happen, Will. I say we do it. And we do it now."  
"Hear, hear," Xav muttered, earning him a stern look from both his mother and Crystal.

For the third time that evening I focused on my shield. Now that I knew what to do it was almost easy to concentrate and blow the roof off. With no interruption this time, the shield stayed open and I could sense the other people around me. I could feel Will tensing up at the danger he felt was there. I felt Uri brushing my mind as he looked for my past. I felt the friendship connection I had with Phee and even Sky. I couldn't see, but I could feel how Zed kept it all together and how he saw the bigger picture, I was curious to find out what he was seeing. And after a few minutes, it was him who spoke to me.  
_Make Will happy, close the roof._ As I closed the shield, I looked up to see Zed winking at me.  
Just like last night, Saul asked what everyone had seen. This time, instead of everyone taking turns, Zed summed up the total of what he saw.  
"Nothing special in her childhood, it looks and feels like it's a loving family. Who's the red-headed woman holding you as a baby?" He asked me.  
"She's my aunt. I never even knew her, she died when I was three months old."  
"She seemed important." Karla said.  
But I didn't know or get how or why she would be. She wasn't a part of my life.  
"Anything about the danger, Zed?"  
"No, dad, I can see her immediate future, she's safe here. I don't see the threat coming and I didn't get a clue about it from reading her now."  
Will sighed, disappointed and frustrated.

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	14. Chapter 14

**It has been way too long since I updated. But I was just really stuck. The first conversation in this chapter, I had it all written out, perfectly. And then I realized some of the things in the conversation would give me trouble in the story later on. So I had to edit some stuff out. Which took me really long, I got stuck at trying to fix it. And I'm not completely satisfied yet, but going to post it anyway ;-)**

**Chapter**** 14.**

The next morning I noticed Victor was missing at the breakfast table.  
_He took a night flight to Denver. I didn´t think you´d mind if we didn´t wake you up to wave him off._  
He was right about that. I didn´t mind at all, knowing Victor wasn´t here made my shoulders relax, I hadn't even noticed he was making me tense up that much.  
"Mom, relax, we won't be late. We still have an hour before we have to leave and we've already packed everything." Karla was fussing over all the other people leaving today.  
Saul grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to the chair next to him. "Sit down, sweetheart."  
I took an egg from the bowl and started peeling it.  
"When are you going back home, Phee? I need to get some last-minute work done before Monday." Phee eyes shot from me to Will, she looked uncomfortable.  
"What are you talking about dear?" Karla asked, "I already prepared you Will's room, so you can stay here."  
I must have looked stunned.

"What? I can't just stay here and not go back to the university."  
"Of course you can, Vick already arranged it before he left." Karla stated it like it was a good thing.  
"What did you do?" I asked Will.  
"You didn't tell her?" Uriel raised his voice, "Vick wouldn't have arranged it if he knew you hadn't told her."  
I doubted that. Victor seemed like the person who wouldn't care what I'd think about it.  
"When were you going to tell her?"  
"This afternoon, after..." Will paused, "...everyone left."  
"Tell me what?" I looked at both men.  
"You can't go back to the university."  
"Why is that?"  
"I can feel you're in danger whenever you leave this house. Whenever you leave my side. I can't let you go back there. You won't be safe."  
Most of the people at the table were trying not to be listening to our conversation, but I really didn´t care. Trace said something about a last-minute check for the bags and he and Diamond got up.  
"I have school work, obligations."  
"I can't protect you there. I can feel that you're safe here, but as soon as you're out of the shield, there's danger."  
"_I_ am the shield, am I not? What shield are you talking about?"  
"The safety shields we put around the house. We protect the house with our gifts. If you leave, you won't be shielded anymore."  
"So shield me over there." I said.  
"Too much ground to cover, and we would need one of us there to maintain the shield."  
"I'll be with Phee."  
"Phee can't do it." Will glanced over to her and added: "Yet."  
"I'm not staying here."  
"You still don't trust my gift? I am never wrong, you'll be in danger if you go back to the university."  
_You're not listening to me. I'm not staying _here_. I trust your gift. I trust you. But I'm not staying here at your parents' house._

I saw flashes going from Will to Phee and back again. Will nodded and Phee spoke up.  
"You can stay at our place. It's always shielded."  
"But we won't be there honey." Yves told her.  
"That's why I'll be staying there as well." Will said.  
Karla gasped. "You can't do that. It's not appropriate."  
"Xav and I are living together, Karla." Crystal said.  
"Yes. And you shouldn't be." Crystal opened her mouth but Xav spoke up before her.  
"Okay, Cupcake, let's go check our bags."  
"Our bags are fine."  
"Humour me." Xav got up and gently pushed Crystal towards the door. I was thinking about what Will had just said. I didn't want to stay here with his parents. Karla was great, but she was already a lot to take. Being in the privacy of Phee's house was very appealing. But being there with Will? Well, even more appealing. But did I really want to do that? It felt like taking three steps all at once instead of going one step at a time.  
"Mom, we stayed there together before."  
"With other people present."  
"It won't make a difference, you know that. And even if you think you don't know it, you can still find out and know." Will was referring to Karla's ability to see the future.  
Zed gazed off. "They will be fine, mom."  
"I know that," she replied, "And I also know I won't be able to change your minds on this."  
"Well," Saul got up, "We need to get everyone to the airport." Everyone else got out of their seats as well and headed outside to say their goodbyes. I got up and started stacking up the plates, taking them to the kitchen counter. I wasn't really close to the people leaving, so I thought I'd give them the family time.

"You aren't going to wave me off?" I spun around, plates almost slipping out of my hands.  
"What is it with you Benedict brothers that you keep on giving me scares?"  
"I'm sorry." Uri walked over and took the plates from me.  
"You're leaving for Denver?"  
"No, I'm leaving for Africa. Again."  
"Oh." I really didn't have a better response ready.  
"Crystal and I figured out a new plan. This time I'm not coming home before I find her." He smiled. "I wanted to ask you..." Uri paused.  
"Ask me what?"  
"Why did you give in so easily just then?"  
"Give in?"  
"Yeah. You were upset that Will arranged for you not to go back to the university. And still you easily agreed on it."  
"I was told we are savants. I was told we have gifts. And that would be hard to believe... But... I am a shield, apparantly. And I felt it. I felt people trying to get through my shield. I hear Will inside my head, you saw my past, Sky very accurately describes my feelings. How can I not believe that all of those gifts are real? And if they are real, then so is Will's. I might not agree on it, but I do believe that if he tells me I'll be in danger, that's true. And if I believe him, I have to act upon that. It wouldn't make sense to still just run towards the danger. I don't understand it, but I do believe it. That's why I 'gave in'."

I sighed.  
"What is it?" Uri asked.  
"I wish you weren't leaving."  
"I can stay, do you need me to stay?" He was really serious, but I couldn't let him do that.  
"Of course not Uri, you have to go."  
"I'll be back soon."  
"You don't know that." I retorted.  
"Yes, I do. The plan Crystal and I have is solid. I'll be back soon. And kick Will's butt if he doesn't treat you right."  
We both laughed and Uri pulled me into a hug. I walked him out to the car. Zed and Saul were both driving a car to the airport. Everyone hugged and Karla shouted some last-minute advice through the windows. As the cars drove off, just me and Will were standing there, Karla had ran inside to get the phone, she still needed to tell Xav something. Will put his arm around me and kissed me on my cheek.

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